Events during September 2023

Meet the Microbiology Experts

Delivery of a virtual ward in East Kent: A clinical overview

The public health side of drug misuse

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) Patient Blood Management (PBM) team, with the support of the London Regional Transfusion Committee, created a remote, no-cost education group for biomedical scientists aimed at providing ongoing professional development for transfusion laboratory professionals. The popularity of the group led to the continuation of the group beyond the pandemic and membership being opened to all healthcare professionals interested in blood transfusion.

The group convenes monthly and invites professional/industry experts to deliver lectures on specialist areas of blood transfusion, followed by discussion. The curriculum is flexible and responsive to feedback, incorporating key recommendations, such as those found in the annual SHOT report. The group has covered a wide range of topics, including antibody identification, appropriate use of blood components, haemoglobinopathies, advances in information technology, inventory management, gender reassignment, provision of rare blood, transfusion delays, and emergency preparedness, among others.

Over 2800 healthcare professionals worldwide have joined the group, with an average attendance of 165 individuals per meeting. Survey results from 1390 delegates between April 2022 and April 2023 demonstrated high evaluation of the education provided during the sessions, with an average rating of 4.72 out of 5 for information quality and 4.58 out of 5 for information relevance to their day-to-day work. Furthermore, 99.1% of all respondents believed that the education enabled them to offer a better service to patients and service users.

The NHSBT PBM team's remote and accessible model has been successful in providing ongoing education and continuing professional development for blood transfusion professionals beyond the pandemic. This cost-effective model has become a regular feature in hospital transfusion continuing professional development, enhancing individual and service performance, and could be a valuable consideration for other healthcare disciplines.

What’s new in antivirals? (Antivirals & Mabs as therapeutics)

National Point-of-Care Strategy

Training for Biomedical Scientists is a fast-growing field and has become a crucial factor in the efficiency of histopathology departments. It has many benefits from improving turnaround times, career progression and utilising Pathologist’s time more effectively. As more Biomedical Scientists are performing dissection the responsibility to teach, and train is down to the already practicing BMS dissectors rather than the Pathologists. It is imperative that training is performed correctly and suitably for the individuals, the patients, and the department as a whole. Many aspects need to be considered to deliver effective training and being fully prepared and organised for training can make the process a successful one.

Digital cervical cytology: The Monklands experience

Androgens are the naturally occurring or synthetic hormones which can increase lean body mass and decrease fat mass and are the most effective and widely abused ergogenic drugs in sport. The detection methodologies for the exogenous steroids is mostly based on the gas/liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry, while detection of the exogenous administration of endogenous steroids requires more complex methodologies including the longitudinal monitoring of individual urinary steroid concentrations/ratios and isotope ratio mass spectrometry. Although, urine has always been the first choice of sample matrix to detect androgens in sports. However, blood matrix is also now paving its way towards a complementary matrix for detection of androgens in sports. Dried blood spots (DBS) analysis is the latest tool in sports drug testing. DBS testing has advantages in the collection, shipment, and storage compared to traditional urine and blood-based procedures.

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has recently introduced DBS testing as an implementation for routine doping analysis during the recent Olympic and Paralympic Games in Tokyo and Beijing. DBS samples can be obtained with relatively little training and require minimal invasion at the collection site. A variety of devices based on micro-lancet and micro-needle approaches have been applied in the DBS collection.

Most androgens in DBS are stable at room temperature, so there are no specific requirements during transport. Also, considering the small size and weight of DBS, the DBS-based technique is more cost-effective compared to urine or blood samples. However, as a microscale sample, DBS require more sensitive and accurate analytical methods. The Drug Control Centre, King’s College London (a WADA accredited lab), we are currently investigating the use of DBS testing in our systematic regular analysis as a new methodology.

This presentation will discuss the current situation, perspectives, and challenges of implementing DBS testing for detecting androgens in sports.

Myositis